Cheery, eh? This is from a 1959 photo-story in LIFE magazine. Soooo heartrending, in a kind of gung-ho pre-Vietnam "erm...shouldn't this bloke be spraying sidewalks with Roundup in that outfit?" kind of way. Poor old Ben Sawicki in his nuclear blast-proof gloves. And I bet they replaced his M14, too. So creepy...
"The GI of the future, as U.S. Army planners see him, will look so weird he may scare the enemy to death without firing a shot. The Army believes that in the event of a nuclear war, each soldier must be fully equipped to fight on his own. To illustrate its point, the Army trotted out Sgt. 1/C Ben Sawicki encased in a camouflage suit, a bulletproof vest, mask and gloves for protection against nuclear blasts and a light, plastic helmet with a built-in radio. Perched on the helmet is a pair of infrared glasses which he can use to spot the enemy at night or in a storm. Stuck in his vest are new high velocity bullets for his M-14 rifle. And tied to his back is a rocket device (not shown) to help him jump across 50-foot chasms or up hills. Says the sergeant. "With this outfit I could take on 10 soldiers with ordinary equipment and kill 'em all."
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